November 6

A hydroelectric dam fails on Toccoa Creek in Georgia fails, and the last of the Kuwaiti oil field fires is extinguished.

Nov. 6, 1947: Newspaper reporter Marjory Stoneman Douglas publishes her book "River of Grass." Douglas devotes the rest of her remarkable life to preserving the Florida Everglades, and in active in the cause until shortly before her death at age 108 in 1997.

Nov. 6, 1977: A small hydroelectric dam fails on Toccoa Creek in northern Georgia, killing 39 people downstream. The Kelly Barnes Dam is never rebuilt, and Toccoa Falls is a major local tourist attraction today.

Nov. 6, 1991: The last of the intentionally-set fires in Kuwait’s oil fields is extinguished after 10 months. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ordered Kuwait’s oilfields set ablaze (at right) as Iraqi troops retreated from their invasion of Kuwait. Iraq also intentionally released an estimated 400 millions of gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf from tankers and oil platforms.

Nov. 6, 2012: In his re-election acceptance speech, President Barack Obama breaks his silence on climate change: "We want our kids to grow up in an America… that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet."

Nov. 6, 2012: Bestselling novelist Barbara Kingsolver releases a novel with a climate change-based plot. “Flight Behavior” is one of the few works of fiction with a climate theme.